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No more false alarms following Northern Ireland Housing Association’s switch to Aico Alarms

Grove Community Housing Association in Northern Ireland has replaced its existing Smoke Alarms with Aico’s Multi-Sensors and Ei164e Heat Alarms in more than 80% of its properties.

Established in 1977, Grove Community Housing Association manages 218 properties in North Belfast, which are a mixture of new builds and renovated existing dwellings. With the Smoke Alarms in these properties coming to the end of their ten year life, Grove looked in to the market for mains powered alarms that are reliable and could reduce false alarms. Denis Bleakley, Grove Community Housing Association General Manager, explains: “We wanted 10 year life rechargeable batteries so neither tenants nor the Association would be troubled by battery replacement. Being rechargeable also means that if for some reason the electricity supply is off for an extended period, the batteries still do not need to be replaced and the alarms function safely. We liked the Multi-Sensor technology to reduce false alarms for us and our tenants, which we found was backed up by BRE [Building Research Establishment] research.”

The Multi-Sensor Fire Alarms contain two sensor types, optical and heat, to constantly monitor smoke and heat levels, sending and receiving information via its intelligent detection software, for fast response and reduced false alarms; the latter is enhanced through a dust compensation feature.

Since the new Aico alarms have been installed, Denis states that he has not had any false alarms reported. Furthermore, the installer confirmed there were no faulty alarms which is testament to Aico’s quality control.